http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
SINCE ELECTION DAY, America has been plunged into an unwanted civics lesson, but
one in which checks and balances have been replaced by chads and challenges.

No branch of government -- executive, judicial or legislative -- seems to have the last word
in Florida, where soundbites and certifications have so far signified nothing.

And the entity that Americans usually look to for finality, the U.S. Supreme Court, may not
bring matters to an end no matter which way it rules because lower-court contests will continue
in Florida regardless.

The only thing you can make book on, the Gore forces say, is that Al Gore has just begun to
fight. "And we're fighting to the last breath," a senior Gore aide told me. "There will be no
concessions."

As if anybody needed reminding, both campaigns appear intent on proving that politics isn't a
game for sissies.

Republican leaders, who feel they have been forced to wander in the presidential wilderness
for eight years because of what they consider Bill Clinton's mystical and unholy grip on
American public opinion, are willing to scorch the earth as much as the Democrats are.

"It's ugly, and we'll fight to the bitter end," says one Bush campaign aide. And nobody is
talking about roller coasters any more. They are talking about space shuttles: The victor is
going to be in orbit and the loser is going to be in ashes.

Both campaigns are feeling the same pressures. Democratic interest groups such as labor and
minorities, and Republican interest groups including the religious right don't care if a
concession would make their man look more statesmanlike; they will take an ignoble victory over
a noble defeat.

"Labor is demanding a fight to the death," says one Gore ally. And pressure is being applied
to members of Congress. "The guys who leave us now will look like rats," says one Gore
operative.

What keeps Gore going, according to his closest aides, is that "he won the popular vote, and
he is absolutely convinced more people voted for him in Florida than voted for George W. Bush.
People voted for him for a reason. And Gore believes to concede would be to let those people
down."

Bush aides find this merely part of Gore's high-horse-on-a-low-road routine. "They don't have
a higher calling, this is all about power and control," says a top Bush aide.

But there is balance point: Though it was once assumed that if Gore lost in 2000 he would be
finished in terms of presidential politics, the nature of the loss and the fact that Gore
received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history except for Ronald Reagan
could make Gore a powerful candidate next time around.

But Gore must decide when, if ever, to pull the plug in 2000 to position himself for 2004.
"He should serious consider it; he won the popular vote," says Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. "He's
been a great candidate. And if we see a nullifcation of the votes (in Florida), he'll always be
the presumptive candidate."

As of now, his aides insist, it is the present and not the future that dominates Gore's daily
life, which is made up of phone calls and e-mails to allies and members of the media urging
support for his fight.

Although he is showing few if any signs of outward fatigue, his staff is exhausted. "If you
had told me we'd be here after Thanksgiving, I would have thought you were crazy," says one top
Gore campaign official, who sees the warfare lasting through mid-December, when the Electoral
College is to meet and officially select a president. "The system grinds you down," says
another.

The Bush camp is not exactly popping champagne corks, but they do feel they have the upper
hand. "No outcome would overturn us winning" the manual recount, says a top Bush aide.
But the Bush political team is also ready to kill all the lawyers on the legal team because
what once looked like a good idea -- asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene -- has now
delayed any possibility of Bush claiming final victory this week.

"This is not over," Lance Block, a Democratic attorney, says. "Florida's electoral votes were
by no means decided (Sunday.)"

Maybe and maybe not.

The Democrats have been successful in diminishing the importance of certification, while the
Republicans can say that if George W. Bush is not exactly president-elect, he is at least
president-perhaps, and that is more than Gore can say.

It will all continue, but if the events of last week were not the beginning of the end, they
seemed at least to be the end of the beginning. And for small favors we should all be
grateful.